Reevaluating Star Trek: Enterprise

[Beastro]

I never hated Enterprise either - it was slow starting and a lot of the first two seasons were not great but I was willing to wait for improvements to be made, then 9/11 happened and I felt the show was making a cringy response which didn't improve well into the season. Then Season 4 came and it was GOOD (and basically pre-cancelled). I mean if you want bad, we have Star Trek: Insurrection to point at.

There's something worse than hate for a work to bring out in people, indifference.

That's what Enterprise did, but again, I felt that more in early Voyager than anger or hate.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

I never hated Enterprise either - it was slow starting and a lot of the first two seasons were not great but I was willing to wait for improvements to be made, then 9/11 happened and I felt the show was making a cringy response which didn't improve well into the season. Then Season 4 came and it was GOOD (and basically pre-cancelled). I mean if you want bad, we have Star Trek: Insurrection to point at.

There's something worse than hate for a work to bring out in people, indifference.

That's what Enterprise did, but again, I felt that more in early Voyager than anger or hate.

I feel like this could apply, at least to some degree, to almost everything in the franchise post-DS9. I've actually been pretty surprised that casual audiences seem to remember Trek '09 fondly and fairly well, since it comes across to me as a fairly generic movie in a lot of ways. Into Darkness is the same, but worse, and Beyond I enjoyed a lot but isn't really the most remarkable movie either.

For both Voyager and Enterprise (and Discovery so far), I don't know if there's a single episode from either series that I would label as "iconic." TOS, TNG, and DS9 all have episodes that could easily be recalled years after watching. The closest Voyager and Enterprise get to that are their worst episodes, and even those episodes aren't iconic like Spock's Brain. As great as DS9 was, even it wasn't on the "cutting edge" with B5 around. Part of the issue is that the rest of televised sci-fi caught up and Trek lost some popularity in its televised format, but part of it is simply that Trek ceased being memorable or distinctive, let alone great, television.

To put it more shortly, we have already seen a glut of producers and showrunners either explicitly state or implicitly show the influence of BSG on sci-fi. Both DS9 and B5 deserved more recognition, but people in the know understand how good those shows were. But Voyager and Enterprise? I don't see anyone ever coming out and crediting those shows as serious influences on their own work.

[nebagram]

For both Voyager and Enterprise (and Discovery so far), I don't know if there's a single episode from either series that I would label as "iconic."

I'd argue Scorpion and maybe Dark Frontier for Voyager. Maybe the Harry Mudd episode for Discovery, but that'll have to pass the test of time first. But you're right about Enterprise. The only episodes that stand out are the atrocious ones.

[Nealithi]

I am not a major fan of Enterprise. I agree with Chuck on many of his views on how things were done and when they were done well. And when you got hit with 'What were they thinking? Or smoking?' (Night in Sickbay) What made it bad for me was they rarely shook things up really. A few surprises here and there I enjoyed. Back in the pilot where T'pol was in command but followed Archer's course of action because it is what a good first officer does. It was a nice touch and made me look forward to the dynamic. Then it rarely paid off. Like Voyager had some promising episodes. But the universal reset button made it boring. So I have been waiting since DS9 for another 'good' Star Trek. For me it is still TOS, TNG, and DS9 at the top. With VOY and Ent fighting for fourth place. Those coming after are struggling at the bottom of the can.

[Beastro]

For both Voyager and Enterprise (and Discovery so far), I don't know if there's a single episode from either series that I would label as "iconic."

I'd argue Scorpion and maybe Dark Frontier for Voyager. Maybe the Harry Mudd episode for Discovery, but that'll have to pass the test of time first. But you're right about Enterprise. The only episodes that stand out are the atrocious ones.

Iconic Voyager is, to me, The Killing Game, and yes, that isn't a compliment, it's just what comes to my mind first when I think of what the show was.

For Enterprise, it's In a Mirror, Darkly and bits of Awakening, especially with Surak. Even then, it's because they modestly tapped into what the series should have been about. In the latter case going into and expanding upon something established in Trek lore, like Vulcan culture, adding touches of nostalgia sprinkled about, but not too thickly.

The bit with Surak stood out for me because of how it touched on the conflict that bred the Romulans and gave a moment of major event being experienced, even if in a dream-like environment. That sense of history being in the making was what should have been at the heart of the series. Looking back, it makes me sad that established history and such prevented the Romulans from being focused upon alongside their continued issues with the Vulcans, but even then I wouldn't have minded them breaking with TOS and ignoring the established timeline to rush them for the show, especially since the Romulans are the most neglected major race in the franchise.

In the end the show managed to undermine any sense of awe even when it came to the very moment the Federation was founded.

[Darth Wedgius]

Beyond was most definitely better. It wasn't brilliant or anything, but it was a good time and I actually found it to be the most "Trek" of the three movies.

Give it a watch when you're bored one night. You probably won't be too disappointed.

I looked for it on Netflix but that ship seems to have sailed. I'll check out the rental prices at some point, but it's behind Battle of the Five Armies, and that... seems to be taking me a while to get to.

[Enterprising]

The problem with Enterprise is much like with Voyager, they just carried on the same as TNG without really taking account for the evolving times of TV with bigger, better and longer story/character arcs. Not helped I'm sure with Berman's "safe" approach to everything. You can tell with how DS9 went with him less involved and other folk leading creatively, we got to new and more interesting places, but it seems he got move involved with Voyager & Enterprise, hence they both went on the sucky path.

9/11 actually happened right before Enterprise premiered it's pilot and that again change the mindset and scope of the audience, Enterprise didn't cotton on until a couple of years later, well after the damage to the show was done.

It's interesting listening to Branon Braga's accounts on the special features of the blu-rays, and while I'm sure he's putting own twist on things on top of adding the benefit of hindside, but I still feel at least a bit of sympathy for him when he talks about what he wanted to do with Enterprise. First thing he confessed to was both he and many on the staff having "Star Trek burnout" and that he wanted to push back the production of Enterprise for at least 1 year to both get a break and refresh things on-screen. Instead they had to rush a pilot just a few months after Voyager wrapped. Then he wanted much of the 1st season to be almost entirely land-based & focus on the struggles Starfleet was going through, especially with the non-help but plenty critique from the Vulcans. He seemed to have a lot of the right ideas to take the show forward, but almost none of them got taken forward until the show was really floundering near season 2's end, where he finally got his season long arc. (Which he wanted to do in Voyager with "Year of Hell" but got voted down on that.)

It's kinda like what Chuck said in the Best of Both Worlds review, what revitalised Star Trek in season in cliffhangers, also damned it. Much the same way of the episodic format of Trek made it, and later broke it when it didn't get with the times.

I didn't "hate" Enterprise (far too strong a word to use) it just bored and dis-interested me for being more of the same that we already had, it had to do something different and it didn't do that until it was too late.

[PerrySimm]

At the time, "B&B" were the inseparable locus of what was killing Star Trek... if there is any focal point for serious re-evaluation of Star Trek in the early 2000s, it would be giving a little more credit to Braga.

[Deledrius]

I think both Voyager and Enterprise suffered from two main flaws. First, they both arrived after Deep Space Nine, which at that point made it seem like the franchise was improving, so the subsequent shows felt like a step backwards. Second, they both tried to be TNG when that ship had already sailed. TNG worked as well as it did in part because it skipped ahead and was freely exploring a (mostly) whole new story Galaxy, so the disconnected nature suited it. Voyager and Enterprise tried to hit the same notes, but with premises that didn't support that sort of devil-may-care plotting. It made Voyager seem flippant about their situation, and Enterprise -- refusing to benefit from the decades of story material handed to it -- decided to ignore or contradict the familiar worlds and relationships we should have been watching them discover for the first time. Both shows had immense potential to revitalize the franchise by going in new directions and exploring new types of stories. They both aggressively denied this opportunity.

In looking back, Enterprise seems less bad, but only because the trend started by Voyager has continued downward. I still don't rewatch it like I do TOS, TNG, and DS9 (and even Voyager). It's just missing something that makes it entertaining and comfortable. I don't expect Discovery will lend itself to rewatching the same way as the earlier shows, either.

[Meushell]

Enterprise is the only Trek show I actually quit watching. (This was in part because of my disappointment in Voyager.) For Enterprise, I came back for season 3 and enjoyed it the rest. At this point, what I didn’t like about Enterprise remains.

I enjoyed the Kelvin timeline movies, so there was no issue of Enterprise looking better in comparison for me.

I have not decided yet on Discovery. Right now, I do find it overall weaker than Enterprise seasons 1 and 2.